The aim of a hackathon: The aim is to provide a distraction free environment. On normal days, can you and your teammates work on a cool project uninterrupted for more than 2 hours? Doubtful. Plenty of distractions like WhatsApp, Instagram, FB etc. But in a hackathon - you can actually make something worth sharing.
So this is actually why I proposed a "hackathon" at my company where developers are not to be interrupted for a stretch of time. That allowed them to focus and come up with some really cool prototypes.
So this is actually why I proposed a "hackathon" at my company where developers are not to be interrupted for a stretch of time. That allowed them to focus and come up with some really cool prototypes.
If you are referring to 8 hours - I believe you need more time than that to translate an idea to code. In my opinion 24-36 hours are optimum.